Recap of the 35th Letter from the Producer LIVE!

April 28th, 2017 by Raptorchan

The 35th Letter from the Producer LIVE for Final Fantasy XIV was an eventful livestream; with Naoki Yoshida answering community submitted questions regarding the upcoming expansion: Stormblood. There were also some… Unexpected, but quite hilarious, surprises as well.

At the beginning of the stream, Yoshida announced that the next Letter from the Producer Live is scheduled for May 20th(subject to change) and would be hosted in Germany. And, much to his dismay, there will also be a live patchnote reading from Yoshida during E3 before Early Access. Yoshida admitted he honestly wanted to stay home and play Stormblood, but had no one to blame but himself for this situation, as he was the one responsible for picking the Stormblood launch date.

Before the Q&A session began, they briefly discussed the key characters set to appear in Stormblood while showing off official art and short descriptions for each character. Below is the list provided on the Official FFXIV forums:

Lyse A young fighter of surpassing skill, Lyse yearns to bring freedom to her homeland of Ala Mhigo, which fell to the Empire when she was but a child. Her brash, impulsive ways often result in her biting off more than she can chew. Yet the time may come when she must rise to the occasion and become a leader of men…

Gosetsu Hailing from the Far Eastern land of Doma, Gosetsu has long served Doma and her sovereign, and fought valiantly to defend them from the Garlean Empire twenty-five years ago. Though Doma fell in the end, the samurai has since labored tirelessly to see her rebuilt. Renowned as a peerless warrior, this loyal retainer dreams of a day when the shadow of Garlemald no longer darkens his homeland.

Yugiri A shinobi in service to the Far Eastern land of Doma, Yugiri took part in the nation’s failed rebellion against the Garlean Empire. When all was lost, her liege bade her take to the sea, along with many of Doma’s people, and seek sanctuary in the western lands of Eorzea. Her calm, collected demeanor belies a burning desire to face the imperials in battle once more, and redeem the failures of her past.

Hien The young heir to the throne of Doma, Hien is a charismatic leader beloved of his people. Together with Gosetsu and Yugiri, he spurred his countrymen to rise up against their Garlean oppressors. But when the rebellion was crushed, Lord Hien vanished without a trace…

Zenos yae Galvus Leader of the XIIth Legion and crown prince of the Garlean Empire, Zenos is possessed of but a single passion: to stand on the front lines, blade in hand, and dance with death. He regards friend and foe alike with contempt, and tales of his brutality against both have spread far and wide. While crushing the rebellion of yesteryear in Doma, he took a liking to Far Eastern katana, which have since become his weapons of choice.

Yotsuyu The acting imperial viceroy of Doma, Yotsuyu’s grace and beauty belie a heart of stone. A cruel, sadistic ruler, she harbors a deep hatred for Domans. Under the pretext of purging radical elements, she has perpetrated numerous atrocities against her own people. Yet all are the hero of their own story…

Fordola A young soldier born and raised during the imperial occupation of Ala Mhigo, Fordola was promised the world─education, training, citizenship─in exchange for service. Scorned as traitors by their people and savages by their Garlean masters, she and others like her struggle to forge their own path in an unforgiving world.

Raubahn There will be a story about Raubahn’s past, and Pipin will also be making an appearance.

Recap of the Q&A session:

General Stormblood questions:

Gosetsu is a Hellguard Roegadyn.

There will be new weather effects in Stormblood, as well as some adjustments to the lighting and shadow effects for design purposes.

The size of the new areas are similar to the sizes in Heavensward. There are the same amount of zones as well.

Players will be able to visit Thavnair (Radz-at-Hahn) feeling areas starting in patch 4.05.

There will be new Far Eastern inspired attire that will feel more authentic, as well as two new Doman inspired hairstyles.

Lore-wise, there is a time difference between Othard and Eorzea.

There will be new hunts!

Roughly 45 new exploration logs will be added, if the demand is high enough, they will add more.

They added Samurai because it fit the overall story, plus they really wanted the job in the game!

They decided to add Red Mage because it was so highly requested at events.

Yoshida was asked if he had already decided Red Mage was going to be in the game since it was mentioned during the Rising Event of 2015. Yoshida admitted it was added in there to make a secret “Thank You” code, but players got excited for the Red Mage mention. It made the dev team worry and got Yoshida in trouble. Whoops!

They showcased two new mounts, a new airship “The Falcon” and a tiger mount! Both are underwater capable.

Ground mounts will not be allowed underwater. However, flying mounts will be able to swim. So whenever a ground mount is given the ability to fly, they will automatically be able to swim.

The Odin horse, Sleipnir, will fly in Stormblood. You can purchase the horse in the Mogstation.

Ground mounts will undergo a speed change with two speed tiers. The first one is unlocked via quest, the second is hidden! “Because it is the main scenario quest, players who are finished with the story up to 3.0 will automatically be able to use the second tier of speed in all ARR/HW areas.”

The skill cool down when changing jobs outside of cities will be removed in Stormblood.

Additionally, sprint will no longer cost any TP.

There will be new Far Eastern inspired emotes, such as a respectful Japanese style bow. You can request more emotes on the official forums!

In Patch 4.1, your grand company squadron will be able to go into dungeons with you. They are also currently working on the A.I of the squadron.

Retainer level has been increased to 70, they will be able to become the new jobs as well.

There are no plans to increase the amount of retainers hired in game, should data show otherwise in the future, they may change this.

New Gold Saucer rewards are coming, but new GATEs and minigames will be added later on in the 4.x series.

Chocobos will level with you automatically. Their rank will not be increasing.

They currently have no plans to implement other character customization beyond new hairstyles. They request people leave feedback on the forums if they have any.

No increase to favorite teleport locations, but the teleport prices are 999g

The /gpose feature is getting a battle feature to snap screenshots during combat.

They are adding a new feature to FATEs that will get you EXP bonuses.

There is a new aethernet shard near the market boards of Ul’dah in Stormblood, so please be sure to attune to it!

More than 20 minions have been added.

We will get to see Au Ra children in Azim Steppe region.

We can expect new developments for Gerolt.

Rowena is here. She is always here.

Heavy armor sets and the like will have a more armor feel and look to them.

Regarding player housing:

Players will not be able to purchase housing at the launch of Stormblood, however the new area, Shirogane, will be open for exploration.

The reason for the decision of housing being unavailable is so players can enjoy the story and the expansion without the stress or worry over housing.

The moving feature will be implemented when Shirogane plots are available for purchase.

Players can move to a new house or apartment even if they already own a plot of land or apartment. To achieve this, a player needs to approach an empty plot and select buy, then select the move option.

You can upgrade to a bigger house. The items your current sized home will be placed in a warehouse for safe keeping.

The moving feature will transfer personal rooms, workshops, company chests and airship voyage status. So players only need to prepare the funds for the plot!

They are unsure if the purchase/moving feature will be available to FCs and individual players at the same time, and more information on this subject will come at a later date.

There will be new Far Eastern interior decor, including new Far Eastern foods for Culinarians to craft.

There is a new Carbuncle exterior for housing!

Raids, dungeons and gear:

The Omega raid will not be available at the launch of Stormblood for the same reason house purchasing will be unavailable, they want players to enjoy the expansion.

Omega Normal will release two weeks after Stormblood’s launch, and two weeks after the launch of Normal, Savage mode will be released.

The equipment pieces dropped in Savage are divided by role, and the raid tier system will be continued. Out of the 8 players in the raid, at least one person will get the weapon they need. They would like to expand on this before Omega Savage is released.

“Similar to 3.0, players will be able to obtain gear through main scenario and side story quests. With 3.0 dungeons, there were times where gear for the role you wanted didn’t drop, or you may have lost the loot to other adventurers, so your item level may have increased slower due to these reasons. For these reasons, with the 4.0 dungeons, we made it so players can obtain the gear for their role after defeating the last boss in that dungeon.”

Crafting and gathering:

There will not be any new crafting/gathering system added like the Specialist in Heavensward, however they have made overall adjustments to crafting/gathering based on feedback.

Blue scripts are going to be retired, but red scripts will remain. They are also adding a new yellow script, and the weekly restrictions will be removed from red and will not be included for yellow!

There will be a new trait to increase the speed of GP recovery. Players will receive the trait through quests, so be sure to do them!

All gatherers will have a new underwater gathering implemented. Fishers will get spearfishing!

There will be no new options to increase graphics capacity beyond what is currently available.

However, PS4 Pro users will receive an update patch at the launch of Stormblood. There will be two modes available: One with the current resolution while increasing frame rate, the other will keep the same frame rate but in crease resolution.

They are going to make adjustments to the Chaos EU Data Center, perhaps adding one or two new servers.

Japan and America will keep the same amount of servers, but they may lift the gil restriction for transferring users.

It was not because of PS3 players that the inventory slots were so few, it was the data in player’s inventory. Since the inventory traveled with you into new zones or dungeons, it stressed the servers out.

But now they are able to increase inventory and armory space. They will increase the inventory and armory space at the launch of Stormblood, analyze the data, and then proceed to plan their next inventory increase.

Stormblood will also bring about 100 new macro slots. These slots are shared among characters under the same account, so if you have macros you want to share across characters, please move them to these slots. Players will now have 200 macro slots total.

There will be a FF30th anniversary event: “We’re planning to hold a FINAL FANTASY series projection mapping collaboration event with the city of Yokohama in June. The projection mapping for FFXIV will be done on the wall of InterContinental Yokohama Grand Hotel. This is a large-scale event, so if you have a chance to visit, please be sure to check it out.”

Supposedly there is also an in game event for the anniversary as well, scheduled for June of this year.

The phone app to talk with FC/LS members via phone is complete, but they want to add more features like checking/selling on the market, sending out retainers, ect.

They are planning to release the app at the end of the year/start of 2018.

PS4 users who pre-ordered digitally will get special moving Stormblood themes!

And finally, they end the stream by singing Happy Birthday to Yoshida, and providing him a moogle cake and FF30th anniversary wine! Yoshida had a rough time trying to open the wine bottle and was forced to surrender it to someone off camera. He then decided to bite into the Moogle cake since he had no forks or chopsticks. The Director was sent into a fit of laughter as his team all watched on from behind the camera as he stuffed his face with cake. Literally.

The wine bottle was eventually opened too, and Yoshida had himself quite a glass full! Happy Birthday Yoshida!

They also discussed the ratings for Netflix series Dad of Light and showed commercials and a brief message from the main actors. The series is doing quite well!

There was also a less… Serious benchmark showcased as well. Featuring Masayoshi Soken, the sound director and music composer for FFXIV, sitting on a bench.

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